Le Bernardin: Top Chef 5: "Le Bernardin" Recap

The season of Top Chef 5 seems like it's been the most seafood-heavy season yet. Tonight will take the chefs further out into the ocean as they have to cook for one of the most revered seafood chefs in the country, Eric Ripert of New York City's Le Bernardin.

Will Carla Hall continue her comeback kid ride? Will Stefan Richter's brief trip to the bottom shake his confidence? And will Leah Cohen finally slump her way out of the competition or get herself back into the game?

We start the show, as always, with the chefs regrouping after Jeff McInnis's elimination. Carla is feeling more sure of herself. Hosea Rosenberg is feeling pressure to represent after becoming the last American guy in the competition. Fabio Viviani talks to his wife on the phone and refocuses himself on the competition. Stefan, in a rare moment of humility, says he feels lucky to still be in the competition after last week's trip to the bottom.

The chefs head to the kitchen for the Quickfire Challenge. With Padma Lakshmi is Eric Ripert, and this sets some of the chefs to shaking. For real – their challenge is to fillet several fish, and some are trembling so, they lose their ability to wield their knives with precision.

The first round is to fillet a few sardines. Carla's is done so poorly, she just laughingly waves the judges on. Jamie's is also poor, and those two are eliminated. Fabio is the only chef who does well, saying as an Italian, he's been doing this all his life. However, Leah, Stefan and Hosea do just well enough to make it to round two, Arctic char.

As soon as they start, Leah messes up, and then gives up, not even attempting to finish. She is eliminated. Stefan's isn't perfect, but passes. Fabio left almost an entire steak on the discarded head, so he, too, is eliminated. Hosea does the best, so he faces up against Stefan in the final round, which is…

Eel! Hosea notes there are no eels in Colorado…okay, but there are no oceans in Colorado either, so clearly if he is a seafood chef, he's getting at least some stuff from elsewhere, so that's really not a valid point.

Even if he had, though, Stefan is grinning because he's been eating eels since childhood. His fillets are perfect, and although Hosea's are better than one might expect for a first-timer, Stefan wins. Again!

Before he learns of any advantage, the chefs all get a special treat: a trip to Le Bernardin for a special meal. They eat course after course of seafood, and most are duly impressed with the skill, precision and simplicity of Ripert's food. The exception is Jamie, who says that style of cooking doesn't impress her and she actually flat out doesn't like one dish, which came with a braised celery.

The chefs then learn that their challenge will be to recreate these dishes, and then serve them to the Top Chef 5 judges and Ripert at Le Bernardin. Stefan, as the winner, gets to pick his course. He picks the lobster, saying it's his favorite, but Hosea thinks it's also because it's the easiest, being a fairly straightforward hollandaise sauce with asparagus.

The other chefs draw knives, ending, appropriately, with Jamie getting the dish she disliked the most.

The chefs have a couple hours to prep, and all are feeling the pressure. Carla is relying on her classical French training. Hosea, on the other hand, notes that sometime he hits a wall due to his lack of formal training, and this is one such time. He's never worked with the spice used in the coating and he's having trouble getting the quantities right.

Towards the end of prep, Chef Ripert makes the rounds and gives each chef a bit of advice to help them tweak the dish. The only exception is Jamie, who doesn't have time to have Ripert help her.

The chefs then have fifteen minutes to fire each dish.

Fabio goes first. His breading is a bit thicker than Le Bernardin's, and he overcooked it a smidge, but it's basically good.

Leah is frazzled right before serving, and her lack of focus is evident in the dish. Her sauce is off, both not matching the original and not having enough flavor. Tom Colicchio's fish is overcooked, although Ripert's is not.

Stefan's sauce is a little thick, but otherwise it's spot on, with Padma saying it's nipping at Ripert's heels.

Carla's chips are a little less crisp than those on the Le Bernardin dish, but the rest of the dish impresses the judges.

Things start trending down with Hosea. His doesn't look or taste right, and his fish is overcooked. It's called the “least precise” so far.

And then Jamie's. Her celery is far too salty, which she recognizes even before sending out the dish, but doesn't have time to do anything else with it. The element is really unappealing to the judges and it is not looking good for her. The other chefs made errors, but hers seem like the only one that is actually bad tasting.

Stefan, Fabio and Carla are called out as best in the judging, with Ripert appearing to be impressed with Carla's ability to suss out the ingredients. However, it's Stefan who is the winner, again, and he wins not only Ripert's cookbook, but also a chance to shadow Ripert in his own kitchens and attend a Food and Wine event.

But of course, the good news doesn't last, and the other three, Leah, Hosea and Jamie, are sent back. Leah and Hosea showed some issues with their ability to pay attention to the details of the dish. Tom also seems to be annoyed that Leah gave up in the Quickfire.

But Padma says that she would have sent Jamie's back to the kitchen if she could. Ouch.

And it's hard to imagine how she can stay after that, with the ethos of Top Chef being you're only as good as your last dish.

They call the chefs back in after a deliberation…and it's Jamie. What a bummer, I really wanted her to go far.


Source: buddytv.com